Chapter 9: Target Practice is for Mexico
by: Mochaije
Disclaimer: I do not own Dark Angel or its characters. Other than that, the story and characters are mine.
Summary: Max's meeting with the mystery Manticore folks goes horribly wrong; she and Asha end up at Logan's.
Rating: PG 13
Max's POV
A disgruntled man comes into the office. I sit on the examination table, the kind you see little kids struggle to hop up on and then dangle their feet from. It's brown leather and steel, with that paper stuff covering it. "So you can cure this?"
"I think we can," he assures me. "If we can't..."
"Then I'm pretty much dead," I lie. If it doesn't work, I'll just turn myself in to Manticore. Fuck it. I've escaped many times before, I'm sure I can manage it before I become like Brin. If this guy doesn't turn me in first. I hear pumps clicking in the next room and the door opens once again.
"Hello, 452..." Renfro drawls. I refrain from leaping at her, and instead stare at the man. "This was too easy. Just because Lydecker was in on this, you thought you wouldn't need backup? Love the hair, by the way."
"Fuck you," I mutter. She walks over and two burly goons follow her in and then close the door. "I'd sooner die than go back to Manticore."
"Oh, you won't be going back for long... You'll be our guest of honour," she explains in a tone that makes me want to rip her head from her body. I can actually feel my trust in Logan and Lydecker fade to almost nothing. "As your friend Ima explained, you're free. You're the key in Eyes Only's plan to expose us. We screw you over, I have to burn the place to the ground." She starts pacing and it irks me to the bone. I know she's got something else planned, they always do. I make a personal note to kick Logan's ass, not only for his comment, but also for this.
"How do I know you won't brainwash me?" I question. She laughs.
"How do I know Eyes Only won't tell on us? I don't." She signals to the guards and they pin me. Renfro and friends don't know about my telepathy--I decide to tell them, throwing the guards through the wall as soon as they touch me. My beeper goes off. I bust through the small window and hit the ground running.
Asha's POV
I try to think about what just happened. A bunch of goons swarmed our apartment, tasered the shit out of Ima, then ran off with her. I had been in the bathroom at the time, putting on some makeup, and I ducked into the empty cabinet as soon as the doors crashed open. I slowly ease my way out of the under-the-sink area, but I'm really cramped up from sitting here for half an hour. I sneak into the main area of my apartment, make-up half-done, quiet as a mouse. Ima must've put up a fight--the place has been ransacked. I pick up the chairs and put them back around the table and sit down.
I should probably go somewhere and hide, in case they come back for me. I consider Logan's, then decide not to. I could go to that Ben guy's house, but I don't know where that is. The idea to go to Crash forms in my brain, and I grab my purse, a small handgun, my car keys, and some make-up so I can finish up in the car.
Speaking of the car... What a beast. Blue, '94 Chevrolet Cavalier. It runs. It does not look nice, but it does get me from A to B and back again. I check the backseat--nervous habit--and climb in. My radio greets me with loud static when I start the car. I tune to a station playing American Pie by Madonna and sing along. I'm such a girl.
"My, my, miss american pie, droooove the Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry, and good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye, singin' this'll be the day that I die... This'll be the day that I diiieee..." I sing at the top of my lungs, barreling out of the parking lot. "They started singin'... Oh yeeaahh!" I yell in an off-key tone. A black and brown figure sprints in front of me and I slam on the Cavalier's useless breaks. The woman studies me for a moment, then runs over and opens up the door. She sits and pulls her hair out of her face, slamming the door.
"GO!" Max yells, reaching over with her left foot and lead-footing the gas. I scream; she drives. "Switcheroo, chickie poo!" She's yelling again. I slide under her into the passenger seat and she takes over the driver's, gunning the old Cavalier down the street. It seems like the wrong side of the tracks. Perfect, new, suburban living over there; hobos and crackheads and guns everywhere else. Someone opens fire on the car and I duck between the dashboard and the seat. Max just swerves, and I notice that her hair is back to it's brownish-red, her wrinkles and any other age signs are gone.
"What the hell is going on?" I yell over the gunfire and squealing tires. She's quiet for a moment.
"The Big Bad in my life told Logan to tell me to go to this clinic and little miss Big Bad showed up with her goons," Max explains, also in a louder tone. We peel around a corner and Max guns the engine some more. This is not going to end in a pretty way.
"Manticore?" I yell, covering my ears. She screams a "yeah" and rips pavement going around the corner. Another machine gun fires up behind us, hitting the back and front windshields. Max ducks, driving blindly. I squeeze my eyes shut and hear a horrible explosion... We squeal to a stop and she leans back a bit in her seat.
"I can make the car explode," she chuckles in an almost terrifying, I've-got-the-power-type of way. I crawl out of my hiding place. "I can make the car explode... I can make the car explode..." Max seems a little drunk on her power and I snap my fingers in her face to get her to wake up a bit. Her eyes flutter back to their natural position and she shakes her head mildly. "Sorry 'bout the car, Asha... Fuck, I had a feeling that meeting was going to be rigged." I brush the glass off the passenger seat and sit in it. We set off once again at a somewhat normal pace, and Max peeking around the shattered glass almost makes me laugh, even though my car is ruined... Her beeper blares it's message and she turns it so she can see the number.
"Logan," she sighs. "It's always Logan. I should just get a cell-phone. Or not even bother with the pager." She steps on the gas a little bit and we speed towards Foggle Towers. I blink but hold my eyes shut a bit too long, wishing Eyes Only would just dissappear.
Max's POV
It's Logan again. Wonder what he wants this time? Gee, Max, someone's robbing the bank! I feel like telling him to call the Powerpuff Girls hotline or something. I can tell from Asha's tired, extended blinking that she's not feeling great about going to Logan's too. I'm still reeling a bit from the other day--I'm a thing? Bastard...
We park underground, to hide the wreck that is Asha's Cavalier. I feel bad--using her and her wheels to get out of Manticore trouble, wrecking both in the proccess. She looks shaken and her car looks broken. My bad.
Logan looks a little odd and wobbly as we let ourselves into his apartment--I think his exoskeleton is still on the fritz. Asha avoids the idea of going to her place, as well as Ben's. I try to interrogate her about why she's doing that, but to no effect. I decide to just read both their minds as we engage in uneasy banter over some coffee in Logan's kitchen. I take on Logan first, because he's mostly chatting with Asha and won't notice my serious expression.
I wonder if she knows... Maybe I'll give her the exoskeleton so she can fence it, get herself another apartment or something. Fuck, I called her a thing... That's probably why she isn't talking to me much. Asha sounds whiny since we broke up, and Max is--Bitchy? Herself? I feel happy that Logan is walking again by himself, even though I don't know how. Aww, and he feels bad for calling me a thing. And I often admit to the bitchiness. Asha is my next victim.
My car is just... I couldn't even sell its parts now. Oh well, Max is still alive and that seems to be all that would matter to Logan if he knew what just happened. Maybe I should go home and leave them alone? Of course, whoever got Ima might have come back and stayed there... What if they got that Ben fellow? I gasp at the news that Ima's been captured and Asha takes notice.
"What's up, Max?" She questions me, her and Logan both turning their heads to face me. I shake my head and sip my coffee.
"I just remembered that I left a chicken in the microwave at Ben's," I dismiss her question. "Nuked it for too long."
"An entire chicken? Fresh?" Logan asks, more to get in the conversation than anything else. I nod. "Maybe we should go over and get it." Asha's face lights up like a bulb
"We'd better not," we say at the same time. She gives me an odd look and I shake my head, gulping down the caffeinated goodness that I hold in my right hand. Logan looks a little bit suspicious as well, and also doesn't say anything, just gives me a look. We're all quiet for a moment.
"I'd better go," Asha says suddenly, reaching behind Logan to dump her coffee down the sink.
"I wouldn't," I point out, blocking the kitchen's exit. "Y'know, people in those stupid scary movies make stupid choices like that and end up dead." Logan gives me a look and I shrug with my eyes.
"It's just my apartment, Max... Do you know something I didn't... Tell you?" I feel a bit cornered, Asha with her hands on her hips, staring at me, Logan with his arms crossed and staring as well. Shrugging and sighing, I insist that Asha doesn't go. I'm not particularly her friend--I wrecked her car!--but I'd hate to see her on the recieving end of a goon's order.
"Fine then, I'll go see Ben," she spits. She really wants out of here. I get out of her way and she leaves, and Logan goes into the living room. I put down my coffee and follow him.
"So, why'd you page me? Let me guess, its 'About last night'... It seems that the word 'about' is the sponsor of every lame excuse that has come out of our mouths. About the dress, about the car, about last night..." He takes a deep breath and sits down.
"Are you done?" He asks. I roll my eyes and sit down as far from him as I can get without leaving the pseudo-living-room.
"I am a human being, for your big fat information," I tell him. "Not a thing. A human being who can kill you from her seat five feet away is what I am." There's a long, awkward silence.
"Look, I'm sorry--but about, well... Us..." He starts, waiting for me to say something witty. I don't and he continues. "Are we--"
"Boyfriend and girlfriend?" I complete his sentence. "I think we should see other people." I feel like I'm breaking up with Ben again, but he stole Logan's body or something. He catches on to that and agrees with me, but I know we're both thinking the opposite. I just don't feel like entangling my life any more than I already have, and I decide to skip a repeat of my Space Needle speech about family and having a life with Logan. We both look a little hurt and I stand to leave, but he gets up and grabs me by the arm.
"Guess what?" he asks.
"Um... Chicken butt?" He shakes his head and kisses me. It's a nice, tentative kiss at first, but I throw that definition out the window, slipping him the tongue and pressing my body against his as we entangle our hands in each other's hair. He pulls away for a second and looks into my eyes. "What?" my voice is a little worried.
"I can't hold my breath for four and a half minutes," he's panting a little bit from a lack of oxygen. I smile and we kiss again, a bit more gently this time, and the phone declares its ignorance. It's me that pulls away this time, and I walk over to the phone, pick it up, look at Logan, then drop it back into it's cradle without saying a word to the caller.
"Well, that takes care of that."
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CHAPTER TEN PREVIEW: JUST REVENGE
"Asha's in shit," I put my shirt back on and put the phone back on the end table. We were so about to do it. We just get to the bedroom and just start undressing and oh, hi, I can't kick ass on my own, come save me, have sex with Logan later. I make a mental note to kick Asha around soon. Logan looks a little hurt.
"She's been waiting hours, right? She can wait some more," he grins slyly now and puts his own shirt and pants back on. I bite my lip and tell him to wait an hour, then leave.
I feel bad, now, and it's Asha's fault. And where's she gonna go? McDonald's? Not at eleven o'clock. Yes, that's right, she'll take the couch at Logan's. I remember now that my bike is at Ben's, and I break into Logan's Aztek instead, grinning slightly at the fucked-up Cavalier. I guess this is just revenge. The Aztek is easy to hotwire, oddly enough, but the hand controls are awkward as hell and I smash into a pillar at a speed of about five miles an hour, because I only know how to go that fast. Wincing at the dent, I figure out how to drive reverse in this thing and leave the underground parking lot. The Cavalier collapses suddenly behind me and I laugh, drunk on my own power once again...
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AUTHOR NOTE
THERE!!! Are you all happy now?! Hehe. Don't worry though, trouble lies ahead for Max and Logan... I won't let them get together for long. And in case you're wondering why the chapter titles never relate to the content... I pick titles before I write the chapters. I originally had Max still pissed at Logan and leaving for Mexico in this chapter!
